Good way to practice making flowers for say Irish Lace, and this, like Granny Squares, is connect as you go.
Using yarn with shades and colors to create an Argyle pattern
This is just ingenious.
Blog--thoughts on product, fairs etc.
Several other vendors at our Village Craft Fair have asked me about this.
I find this very useful.
You should try to keep your artistic efforts at least somewhat inter-related. I don't do food because it is perishable.
You should try and sell enough to cover some of your costs, some of the time.
You should also balance your (full time) or part time job, your age and health situation and the demands of your art.
Musician Red Holloway said at a conference in
Boulder, CO, that "I afford my art through sacrifice." I was on a music
and poetry panel with him and others, such as the Grusin brothers (On
Golden Pond, Milagro Beanfield War etc) and the late Dennis Brutus.
Most reputable craft fairs require that you hand made the items, that they not be imported.
Also juried national level shows require a much
greater outlay of time, energy and booth fees, as well as companions to
get you there, bring down and put up your show. You also need a high
level of excellence in your art or craft, and in some cases, the
production facilities such as studio space, staff, or other resources,
to support that level of artistic excellence.
For this reason I am trying to make more compact items, but since I don't make jewelry, I am doing "needlepoint paintings."
On one hand you may sell a lot of, say, greeting cards at $5 a piece,
but on the other, as the Hmong woman who won a Pew Grant in Philadelphia said,
"I wanted to make something to be remembered by."
Previously, she had been making cushion covers and smaller items as suggested by her Western advisors, bc she needed the money.
For those of you who don't know, or forgot, the Hmong are a SE Asian people who helped France and the CIA --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people
They make the most beautiful embroideries and story quilts.
Cheers,
km
7-11-2020
